BuCor says alleged drone escape plot by South Korean drug kingpin was impossible to carry out
The Bureau of Corrections on Thursday, Sept. 17, assured the public that the reported escape plot by a South Korean man convicted of murder in the Philippines using a drone would have been impossible to carry out.
In a statement, BuCor Director General Gregorio Catapang Jr. said Park Wang-yeol's plan to escape the New Bilibid Prison in Muntinlupa was unfeasible because of the presence of watchtowers and CCTV cameras, and due to the noise a drone makes, reported The Philippine STAR.
"All our operating prisons and penal farms are no-fly zones, and we have watchtowers manned 24/7, which immediately alert our guards if there are attempts to escape through drones," he said.
According to Catapang, Philippine prison grounds, buildings, and outer perimeter areas have extensive CCTV coverage, which enables each facility's command center to track and block suspicious aerial activity in real time.
"Any drone spotted within or near a facility could be recorded and tracked, enabling authorities to respond quickly," Catapang said.
Park, 47, was sentenced by a Philippine court in 2022 to up to 60 years imprisonment for killing three South Koreans in 2016.
On Tuesday, Sept. 16, JTBC News reported that Park planned to escape the New Bilibid Prison by hanging on to a heavy-duty drone, before he was extradited to South Korea over international drug smuggling charges in March 2026.
"It has been learned that one month prior, he had planned a jailbreak from a Philippine detention center," the report said.
Park had supposedly tried to escape twice before coming up with his drone escape plan.
"His third escape plan involved flying out using a drone," it continued.
It included a clip showing a person hanging on to a large drone as it lifted the man over a body of water, at which point the man let go and dropped into the water.
According to the JTBC report, the person in the video was supposedly an accomplice of Park, practicing the escape.
In its investigation, JTBC spoke to an individual "who was well-informed about Park's life in prison." The source quoted one of Park's fellow inmates saying Park claimed there were no signal jammers in the prison facility where he was detained.
Weeks after the drone clip was exposed, Park was extradited to South Korea to face drug smuggling charges.
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